So I'm thinking of brewing a smoked porter to bring in the cooler months of autumn. Smoked malt is nothing I've ever worked with, so I thought I'd check in with you all. Smoked malts seem to come in all shapes and sizes, from different wood used (cherry, alderwood, etc.) to different maltsters (who generally have different processes).

Does anyone have a favorite smoked malt, or favorite for a particular style? If so, why? Anything else I should consider before drawing up a recipe?

Also, I've seen darker kilned smoked Munich style malts. If I go this route, should I start to replace any standard Munich in the recipe with a lighter base malt, or do the smoked Munich malts not lend the same flavors?

I, thus far, have experience with peat smoked malt and beechwood smoked malt. I think the Peat was Simpsons (purchased through BMW), and the beechwood was Weyerman that I bought at my LHBS. I'm going to be ordering some cherrywood and alderwood in the near future to experiment with them in certain recipes.

As for replacing the unsmoked munich with smoked munich that makes sense to me. Otherwise you might end up darker than you want. Plus the smoked malt may be a few degrees darker than standard munich anyhow.

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I've used Briess cherry wood smoked malt and smoked my own with maple. First was a smoked stout with 30% smoked malt and the other was a smoked pale ale with 50% smoked malt (the smoke aroma makes up for a lack of an aromatic hop addition, and may just be the perfect fall beer).

I smoke my own grains, depending on the brew I smoke the grains using white oak, pecan, live oak, apple, or mesquite, sometimes I mix the woods to get the flavor I am looking for, personal favorite is between pecan or white oak, I use it sparingly as others have said so it doesnt overpower the beer.

I like cherry or apple smoked myself. However Alaskan uses Alder in their smoked porter. I dont personally like Rauch in porters, the backbone of the beer just doesnt seem to match well. Maybe a blend of a little peated and rauch would be good?